Generally, in an electronic component mounting system, solder paste is printed by a printer onto lands formed on a circuit board, and electronic components are mounted on the printed solder using a mounter. The electrodes formed on the electronic components are provisionally positioned on the lands formed on the circuit board by the electronic components being mounted on the printed solder. Then, the circuit board is heated in a reflow device, such that the electronic components become soldered to the circuit board.
There are cases in which for some reason a mounter stops after solder is printed on the circuit board, but before an electronic component is mounted on the circuit board. While the mounter is stopped, the circuit board on which printing has been performed stands by waiting for the mounter to restart operation. However, if a long time passes since the solder was printed on the circuit board, the printed solder may dry out. In this case, when the mounter restarts operation, the component holding power of the solder may be insufficient when the electronic components are mounted on the solder, and electronic components that should have been successfully mounted may become dislodged from the solder. In other cases, when a component suction nozzle of the mounter attempts to mount the electronic component on the solder, because the component holding power of the solder is insufficient, the electronic component may fail to be released by the suction nozzle, and may be carried away on the suction nozzle.
In patent literature 1 below, for a circuit board on which solder has been printed, before electronic components are mounted on the circuit board using a mounter, a determination is made as to whether an estimation time, which is a time estimated to be required from completion of solder printing until starting to enter the reflow device, exceeds an allowance time. For circuit boards for which it is determined that the estimation time exceeds the allowance time, because it is supposed that the solder will exceed its allowance limit and dry out before the circuit board enters the reflow device, processing after the determination is prohibited.